Following a highly successful year spent touring the globe and appearing at festivals all over the world, a group, featuring two of the island’s leading musicians, are in the running for two prestigious music awards.

Imar, the electrifying part Manx, Scots, Irish and English trad folk group, featuring bouzouki player Adam Rhodes and fiddle player Tomas Callister, alongside Mohsen Amini, Adam Brown and Ryan Murphy, recently heard that their debut album, ’Afterlight’ has been nominated for ’Best Album’ in the Scots Trad folk awards 2017, and that they have also been put forward for the ’Best Live Act’ award.

Speaking from Glasgow, where the group are based, Adam said that this marks the end of a stunning debut year for the group, who formed mid-way though 2016 and released ’Afterlight’ at the Celtic Connections festival in January this year.

’We’ve only been going officially for coming up to two years now, so it’s a real privilege to be nominated for these two awards amongst so many other amazing bands,’ he said.

They have been on tour almost constantly through 2017, and their relentless schedule has formed them into a formidable live act that has been enthralling crowds throughout the world.

’The Scotsman’ newspaper reviewed Imar earlier in the year, describing them as ’genuinely jaw-dropping’, and saying that ’...they played their hearts out and their socks off, ultimately bringing the audience to its feet.’

’We’ve had quite a busy year, with two tours in the UK and quite a few visits abroad to festivals in Europe and in Canada,’ said Adam.

’We just came back from a big festival in Cape Breton, on an island off the East coast of Canada, called Celtic Colours.

’People travel from all over the USA and even further afield for this festival, and I think we made a good impression wherever we went.’

Adam and Tom were former members of the Manx group, Barrule, and also currently play with Mec Lir. They remain excited about the chance to take Manx music to an international audience, and hope that the award will lead to further recognition

’Our debut album, ’Afterlight’, has quite a few Manx tunes on it.

’It’s great to be able to bring some of the Isle of Man with us in this band, and even better to see the album up for an award.

’We’re just in the middle of writing new material for our second album, due to be released about this time next year. We’ve got a few more Manx tunes lined up for that one as well.’

Voting can be carried out through the Scots Trad Awards website. You can also find the link via the Imar Facebook page.

by Mike Wade

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